Meta tags are little pieces of HTML code that provide information about a website. They’re behind the scenes, invisible on the website but providing browsers and search engines with that all-important information regarding what’s on the site. Think of them like the door opener between your site and the Internet. Meta tags, if used effectively, enhance the experience of the user by allowing future users to find out the information on a page without delay. In search engine ranking, for SEO reasons, they play an important role, as well as in click-through rates and general web exposure.
Differentiating Among Types of Meta Tags
Differentiating between different types of meta tags will assist you in determining which of them you must target.
Title Tags
Title tag is a crucial meta tag. It determines your page’s title and serves as the search engine result page clickable title. An accurate, short title may turn the click decision on your page.
Meta Descriptions
This tag is a summary of information on your website. It does not impact search rankings whatsoever, but it is very significant to CTR because it lets users know what they can anticipate. A creative meta description can bring tons of traffic.
Meta Keywords (Deprecated)
The meta keywords previously most crucial for SEO today are old news to innovators like Google. It not only makes your page appear spammy to over-saturate your meta with lots of keywords, but may be harmful to your SEO.
Meta Robots
Meta robots tags tell search engines how to act on your page. They can tell search engines to index or not index a page, or to follow or not follow links on a page.
Viewport Meta Tag
As a new arrival, the viewport meta tag influences the look and feel of your website on phones. As internet surfing on cell phones continues unabated, the tag is essential to make your site responsive as well as use-friendly.
Meta Tags: Best Practices
To utilize meta tags to best advantage, employ short and relevant titles and descriptions. Limit title tags to 60 characters and meta descriptions to 155 characters so that they are not cut off when shown in search results. Make them pertinent so that both the tags accurately reflect the page content, and be sure to work with King Kong and other pros when you need help.
Don’t include meta tags with numerous irrelevant keywords, since search engines no longer use this with importance. Rather, use clean, useful information for users. Meta robots tags can be beneficial in making management of your site easy if you’d prefer crawlers not to visit particular areas of your site.
Use viewport tags consistently to make your site visible and readable on various devices, thus enhancing user experience and reducing bounce rate.
The Application of Meta Tags in SEO
Meta tags have been a crucial part of SEO strategy for decades, but their purpose usually extends beyond rankings. Title tags and meta descriptions, for instance, affect CTR, which indirectly boosts rankings by signaling relevance to search engines.
In addition, meta robots prevent the search engines from crawling and indexing only the pages you want, thereby improving the site optimization in general. Although some meta tags such as keywords are not as important as they used to be, meta tags such as viewport remain in line with current SEO strategies by responding to mobile-first indexing.
Used tactically, meta tags create the stage for an ideally functioning and extremely noticeable site. They provide the opportunity to make a good first impression—not only with search engines, but with visitors.
